Bulldogs Face Nation-Leading 12th Top-25 Foe In Missouri

Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (16-9, 4-8 SEC) vs. No. 21/22 Missouri (18-6, 7-4 SEC)
Date: Saturday, February 15, 2025
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Venue: Stegeman Coliseum (10,523)
Location: Athens, Ga.
Student Giveaway: First 750 students will receive a Spike bobblehead.
TV: SEC Network (Mike Morgan, play-by-play; Mark Wise, analyst)
Radio: Georgia Bulldog Network – Sirius 106/190 (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Adam Gillespie, producer)
Tickets: www.georgiadogs.com/mbbtix

The Starting 5...

Georgia returns to Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday to entertain No. 21/22 Missouri, the nation-leading and school-record 12th AP top-25 opponent for the Bulldogs this season.
Georgia is 13-2 at Stegeman this season with a scoring margin of +19.0 that includes double-digit decisions in 11 of 13 wins and only losses to No. 1/1 Auburn (72-70) and No. 22 Mississippi St. (76-75).
Unless No. 1/1 Auburn and No. 3/3 Florida plummet from the top 10, Georgia will play more than half of its games in January and February against top-10 opponents – eight of 15 contests.
Mike White has now led three programs with losing records the season before his arrival to top-25 AP rankings in less than three years...also doing so at Louisiana Tech and Florida.
Georgia is the only SEC team that will play the four league teams ranked in the top-10 throughout the entirety conference play – Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee – on the road.

The Opening Tip

Georgia returns to Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday to host No. 21/22 Missouri, the 12th top-25 opponent for the Bulldogs this season. That represents both the most Associated Press ranked foes of any team in the nation this season and the most ever for Georgia in a season.

The Bulldogs' 12 outings versus top-25 AP competition will be one more than Auburn, Ohio State and South Carolina after this weekend. Georgia's previous high for ranked opponents was 10 during the 1981-82, 1997-98, 1999-2000, 2002-03 and 2006-07 seasons.

Tuesday's game at No. 8/9 Texas A&M was the Bulldogs' sixth contest versus an AP top-10 team. That's also the most nationally – along with Missouri and Kentucky – and matches Georgia's most ever during the 1980-81 and 1993-94 campaigns.

Those facts highlight a grueling SEC slate for Georgia.

After playing six of eight games versus top-25 opponents in January, six of the Bulldogs' seven contests in February are against teams ranked this week. With dates with No. 1/1 Auburn and No. 3/3 Florida up next, at the end of February, Georgia likely will have played more than half of its SEC games against top-10 teams – eight out of 15.

The Bulldogs are 16-9 overall and 4-8 in SEC play. Georgia is currently on the right side of bubble and featured in a majority of the projected NCAA Tourney brackets, including a No. 11 seed in Friday's edition of Joe Lunardi's Bracketology for ESPN.com. As of Friday, the web site bracketmatrix.com, which attempts to track every bracket prediction published, showed that 101 of 106 prognostications included Georgia in their "March Madness" picks.

Georgia's balanced offense features seven players who have led the Bulldogs in scoring in one or more games.

Asa Newell, who last Monday was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time to tie Anthony Edwards' Georgia record of most SEC FOTW honors, leads a trio of Bulldogs averaging double figures at 15.0 ppg and also paces UGA on the boards at 6.7 rpg. Among league leaders, Newell is ranked No. 16 in scoring and No. 12 rebounding. He also entered the weekend at No. 3 in the SEC and No. 51 nationally in field goal percentage (.545).

Silas Demary Jr. and Dakota Leffew are scoring at double-digit paces of 11.8 ppg and 10.7 ppg, respectively, for the Bulldogs. Demary Jr. also sports team-high averages of 3.2 apg and 1.7 spg.

Scouting The Tigers

Missouri upped its records to 18-6 overall and 7-4 in SEC play with an 82-58 decision over Oklahoma on Wednesday night.

The Tigers own a pair of impressive road victories in SEC play, defeating No. 4 Florida and No. 13 Mississippi State.

Tamar Bates leads a trio of double-digit point producers for Mizzou at 13.5 ppg, followed by Mark Mitchell at 12.9 ppg and Caleb Grill at 12.7 ppg. Grill currently ranks third nationally in 3-point percentage, connecting on 48.6 percent of his attempts from behind the arc.

Series History With Mizzou

Georgia won a pair of matchups with Missouri last season to close the Tigers' lead in the all-time series to 11-10.

In the opening round of the 2024 SEC Tournament last March 13, Blue Cain scored a career-high 19 points to lead Georgia to a 64-59 win over Mizzou.

The Bulldogs never trailed and led for 18:19 of the first half; however, the Tigers grabbed their first lead just 20 seconds into the second stanza. Missouri was on top for the next 17:57 before Justin Hill's 3-pointer put Georgia back on top for good. The Bulldogs closed out the contest on a 12-0 surge.

Georgia and Mizzou also met last Jan. 6 in their SEC opener in Colombia. Russel Tchewa's 18 points and 11 rebounds led to his first double-double as a Bulldog and a 75-68 win.

Noah Thomasson chipped in 15 points, including the 1,200th of his career.

Georgia used a 16-0 surge to grab a 17-point, 35-18, lead with 5:50 left in the first half before Missouri responded and cut that gap to 40-38 at the intermission. The contest was a one-possession game for 29:38 before the Bulldogs closed out the afternoon on a 12-3 run.

Last Time Out

Silas Demary Jr.'s game-high 19 points and Blue Cain's season-high 17 points led Georgia; however, the Bulldogs dropped a 69-53 decision at No. 8/9 Texas A&M on Tuesday.

The Bulldogs led for 24:30 of the contest and by as much as 11 on three occasions, lastly at 34-23 with 19:31 left, before the Aggies rallied.

"An incredible, unique game where we looked as good as we've looked all year," head coach Mike White said. "And they made some adjustments, they went to their matchup zone, switching everything, their five defense, and it really had us a little bit off balance there in the second half."

UGA Leads The Nation In Ranked Opponents

Tuesday's outing at No. 8/9 Texas A&M represented Georgia's sixth contest versus an Associated Press top-10 foe this season.

Saturday's date with No. 21/11 Missouri will be the Bulldogs' 12th game against an AP top-25 opponent during the 2024-25 campaign.

Both of those tallies lead the nation as outlined below.

Prior to this season, Georgia had never played four ranked opponents in a row. The Bulldogs will play five straight top-25 foes this season twice during SEC play.

In Fact, with dates against No. 1/1 Auburn and No. 3/3 Florida Up next, at the end of February, Georgia Likely will have played more games against top-10 competition than not during SEC play – eight of 15 outings.

Top-25 AP Opponents
Rk.	Team	Games
1.	Georgia	12
2.	Auburn	11
	Ohio State	11
	S. Carolina	11
5.	Tennessee	10

Top-10 AP Opponents
Rk.	Team	Games
1.	Georgia	6
	Kentucky	6
	Missouri	6
4.	Auburn	5
	Miss. St.	5
	N. Carolina	5
	Vanderbilt	5
	West Virginia	5

The Dogs' Home Court Advantage? It's Real and It's Stegtacular

Georgia is 13-2 at Stegeman Coliseum this season, improving to 39-12 (.765) at home under Mike White.

The Bulldogs sport a scoring margin of +19.0 at home, with 11 of 13 victories – including those over No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 16/17 Oklahoma – coming by double figures. Georgia's home losses were by two points to No. 1 Auburn (72-70) and one point to No. 22 Mississippi State (76-75).

The Bulldogs' 13-game home winning streak dating back to last season was snapped by No. 1 Auburn on Jan. 18. That matched the fourth-longest home winning span ever for UGA.

In fact, after producing just 11 double-digit home winning streaks in Georgia's first 116 seasons of intercollegiate competition, the Bulldogs have now produced three double-digit winning streaks at Stegeman during White's three seasons alone as outlined below.

Home Winning Streaks
Rk.	Season	No.
1.	1930-31 & '31-32	25
2.	1938-39 & '39-40	20
3.	1988-89, '89-90 & '90-91	15
4.	2001-02 & '02-03	13
5.	2023-24 & '24-25	12
	1997-98 & '98-99	12
7.	1984-85 & '85-86	11
8.	2023-24	10
	2022-23	10
	2007-08	10

White Is Stellar In Stegeman

Mike White's success at Stegeman Coliseum is not confined to his tenure with the Bulldogs.

White was 7-1 in Athens as a visiting head coach before coming to UGA. He led Louisiana Tech to a 2014 NIT victory at Stegeman and was 6-1 at Florida from 2015-22.

With his 39-12 home mark since becoming Georgia's head coach, White is now a combined 46-13 (.780) in Stegeman. He is a perfect 27-0 versus non-conference competition in home games while with the Bulldogs.

Georgia's Declaration of SEC Schedule Difficulty

We know that a computer spit out the Southeastern Conference men's basketball schedule using an almost unfathomable lengthy list of data qualifiers attempting to create an equal and equitable ledger for all 16 schools.

However, it seems prudent to make the following declaration.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all schedules are not created equal, that they are endowed by the league office with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (as in an NCAA Tournament bid)."

• Georgia is the only league team that has road trips to each of the four SEC teams ranked in the top-10 throughout conference play – Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee. A trip to No. 8/9 Texas A&M was added for good measure.

• Georgia is one of two teams that will play two of those top-10 programs twice – Auburn and Florida. Kentucky is the other – Alabama and Tennessee.

• Of Georgia's 18 SEC games, 15 are against featured in the latest published edition of ESPN.com's Bracketology, including five road outings at top-2 seeds – No. 1 Alabama, No. 1 Auburn, No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Tennessee and No. 2 Texas A&M.

Dogs' "D" Improves At Historic Level

The season before Mike White arrived, Georgia finished the year ranked No. 328 nationally in defensive efficiency according to kempom.com.

As of Friday, these Bulldogs were No. 25 in that same metric.

Georgia's almost unfathomable ascension of 303 spots over three seasons is the second-largest leap ever during the kenpom era, which began 29 seasons ago in 1997 as outlined below.

Georgia's climb has been steady, moving from No. 328 in 2021-22 to No. 132 in White's first season to No. 58 during the Bulldogs' NIT semifinal campaign a year ago.

D-Up, D-Up, D-Up
School	Yr.	Rk.	Yr.	Rk.	Diff.
UCF	'15	319	'18	8	311
Georgia	'22	328	'25	25	303
Grand Canyon	'15	336	'18	50	286
Wofford	'07	324	'10	45	279
Harvard	'09	302	'12	29	273
Little Rock	'22	336	'25	67	269
Manhattan	'11	310	'14	46	264
McNeese	'21	353	'24	89	264
S. Utah	'17	349	'20	86	263
N. Colorado	'15	349	'18	94	255

Georgia Elite At Protecting The Rim

Georgia enters this weekend ranked No. 12 nationally in blocks per game, swatting 5.4 opponent attempts per game.

Freshman Somto Cyril ranks No. 4 in the SEC and No. 35 nationally at 1.8 bpg. Cyril has blocked four or more shots in four games, including five in back-to-back outings against Notre Dame and Buffalo. He is one of three Bulldogs with five swats in a game this season. Dylan James had five rejections in Georgia's upset of then-No. 22/20 St. Johns and Asa Newell did so at No. 4/4 Alabama.

Cyril and Newell both had four blocks when Georgia had 12 swats against Texas Southern on Nov. 10, the Bulldogs' most in a single game since also blocking a dozen attempts by Vanderbilt on Jan. 9, 2019.

Newell Leads The "Dunkyard Dawgs"

With a nod to the awesome website barttorvik.com, we know that Georgia entered this weekend scoring the nation's sixth-highest percentage of its made FGs on dunks – 14.3 percent.

Freshman Asa Newell's 46 slams represent the 10th most among all Division I players as outlined below.

Top Dunkers Team Leaders
Rk.	Team	Pct. of FGs
1.	Creighton	17.5
2.	Utah	16.7
3.	Cincinnati	16.3
4.	Tennessee	15.9
5.	Duke	15.3
6.	Georgia	14.3

Individual Leaders
Rk.	Player, School	No.
1.	R. Kalkbrenner, CU	69
2.	J. Scott, UofL	59
3.	A. Bandaogo, UC	52
	R. Castro, GWU	52
	D. Mitchell, UC	52
6.	F. Okpara, UT	50
7.	M. Rubin, Loy-Chi.	49
8.	B. Coulibaly, Pepp.	48
9.	D. Cardwell, AU	47
10.	A. Newell, UGA	46

Asa Equals Ant For UGA's Most SEC FOTW Honors

Asa Newell was named SEC Freshman of the Week for the fourth time this season on Monday, Feb. 10, tying Anthony Edwards (2019-20) for the most SEC FOTW certificates by a Georgia Bulldog.

Newell also was honored on Nov. 18 (after he averaged 13.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.5 assists in a pair of wins over Georgia Tech and North Florida) Dec. 9 (after posting game-high tallies of 20 points and 11 rebounds in Georgia's 69-48 victory over Notre Dame in the SEC/ACC Challenge) and Jan. 13 (after he averaged 16.0 ppg and was Georgia's leading scorer in wins over No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 17/16 Oklahoma).

That's just a portion of the accolades Newell has received.

On Feb. 7, Newell was named a top-10 candidate for the 2025 Kareem Abdul-Jabar Award by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The award annually honors the nation's top center.

Newell is one of three non-seniors on the list. He is the third Georgia player in the past nine years to be a top-10 candidate for one of the position player of the year awards, following Anthony Edwards (Jerry West Award in 2020) and Yante Maten (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award in 2017).

On Jan. 29, Newell was featured on The Athletic's Freshman All-America squad along with Cooper Flagg from Duke, Dylan Harper from Rutgers, Kasparas Jakucionis from Illinois and Tahaad Pettiford from Auburn.

White Takes Losers To The Top 25

When Georgia appeared at No. 23 in the Jan. 13 AP poll, it represented the third program Mike White has taken a program from a losing record the season before his arrival to a top-25 ranking in less than three years.

The Bulldogs, who were 6-26 in 2021-22, joined the AP poll after improving to 14-4 with back-to-back wins over No. 6/7 Kentucky and No. 17/16 Oklahoma the previous week.

White took less than two seasons to earn a top-25 ranking at his previous two head coaching stops. Louisiana Tech was in 12-20 in 2010-11 before White had those Bulldogs ranked No. 25 during the 2012-13 campaign. White inherited a 16-17 team from 2014-15 at Florida. Two seasons later, the Gators topped out at No. 12 in the AP poll during their 2017 "Elite Eight" campaign.

Some More Stuff On The Polls

The Bulldogs were ranked No. 23 in both the AP and coaches polls released on Monday, Jan. 13.

That was Georgia's first appearance in the AP poll in just over 14 years....since Jan. 10, 2011, when the Bulldogs were No. 24. The last time prior to that when Georgia was featured in both polls was nearly 22 years ago...on March 10, 2003, when the Bulldogs were listed at No. 21 and No. 22 in the AP and coaches polls, respectively.

A pair of wins over ranked foes pushed the Bulldogs into the week's polls.

Georgia's 82-69 win over No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 7 represented the Bulldogs' highest over a ranked foe since defeating No. 5 Kentucky, 65-57, on Jan. 17, 2004. It was also UGA's highest over a ranked opponent at Stegeman Coliseum since beating No. 3 Georgia Tech, 83-80 in double OT, on Jan. 3, 2004.

The Bulldogs then topped No. 17 Oklahoma on Jan. 11, securing their first back-to-back victories over ranked opponents since beating No. 25 Kentucky and No. 21 LSU in January 2007.

In Commit To The G, The "G" Is For Grades

The basketball Bulldogs enjoyed their strongest academic semester ever during the fall, producing a team grade point average of 3.28. That was not only the program's highest mark ever, but also the second-highest GPA among UGA's nine men's athletic programs last fall.

All told, 12 Georgia players posted a 3.0 or higher in the fall. Tyrin Lawrence led the way with a 4.0, followed by four players between a 3.50-3.99 and seven between a 3.0-3.49.

Georgia Alters Starters For First Time

After sending the same quartet onto the court for tipoff for the first 20 games, the Bulldogs changed their lineup against South Carolina on Jan. 28.

Dakota Leffew got the nod for the first time responded with a team-best "+17" that featured 14 points, a team-high four assists and season-best tallies of three steals and 35 minutes.

Georgia was one of six Division I programs to use the same starting lineup for the first 20 games of the season.

Bulldogs' Beginning Among Their Best Ever

Georgia's 12-1 start to the 2024-25 campaign was the Bulldogs' third-best ever and their best in 94 seasons as outlined below.

Georgia also opened 1930-31 at 12-1 and eventually extended that to a 23-1 record before losing to Maryland in the semifinals of the Southern Conference Tournament and finishing 23-2. That campaign was the last of Coliseum namesake Herman Stegeman's 12 seasons as the Bulldogs' head coach.

Bulldogs' Best Beginnings
Rk.	Season	Rec.
1.	1930-31	23-1
2.	1923-24	13-1
3.	2024-25	12-1
4.	2001-02	11-1
	1996-97	11-1
	1929-30	11-1
	1947-48	11-1
	1920-21	11-1
9.	1995-96	10-1
	1994-95	10-1

Georgia Staff Inks Third-Straight Top-15 Recruiting Class

Mike White announced on Friday, Nov. 15 that high school standouts Jackson McVey, Kareem Stagg and Jacob Wilkins inked papers to join the Bulldogs next season.

The trio was ranked No. 11 nationally by Rivals.com, as well as No. 12 by 247Sports.com, giving Georgia its third straight top-15 recruiting class of prep prospects. The Bulldog signees in the Classes of 2024 and 2023 were ranked No. 10 and No. 15, respectively, by both outlets.

McVey, is a 7-1, center from Ellijay, Ga., who is playing at Overtime Elite this season.

Stagg, is a 6-8, forward from Chesapeake, Va., who is in his second season at the IMG Academy.

Wilkins, a 6-9, forward from Loganville, Ga., and Grayson High School is the son of former Bulldog and hall-of-famer Dominique Wilkins.

COMPLETE GAME NOTES PDF

View the full game notes PDF.

Bulldogs Face Nation-Leading 12th Top-25 Foe In Missouri

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Blue Cain

Silas Demary Jr.

Justin Hill

Dylan James

Tyrin Lawrence

Dakota Leffew

Asa Newell

Russel Tchewa

Noah Thomasson

University of Georgia Athletics

Bulldogs Face Nation-Leading 12th Top-25 Foe In Missouri

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Blue Cain

Silas Demary Jr.

Justin Hill

Dylan James

Tyrin Lawrence

Dakota Leffew

Asa Newell

Russel Tchewa

Noah Thomasson

Related Videos